artist's statement by kate cattell-daniels

In many of the iSquares answering the question “What is information?” there is a trend of drawing people. These people interact in many different ways, both with other people and also with information or, at the very least, the idea of information. The iSquares show people, and often people’s brains, with arrows coming or going and various types of information going in and out. What interests me is, for one thing, the amount of information. Rarely is there one arrow and one piece of information at the other end. The other aspect that caught my attention is the importance of bodies in these squares. It seems that almost everyone is thinking about how the body contains and interacts with information. The body is a receptacle, but also a designer of information.

INF013-1300A

INF068-1300A

INF105-1300A

In the article Information Overload (2009), author Tonyia J. Tidline describes information overload. She mentions anxiety, boredom, and confusion, all of which show that information overload has significant physical manifestations. This idea, however, is complicated by the fact that information is not necessarily a physical thing. What happens inside the human brain is physical, but cannot be proven to exist in the same way objects in the world can. Tidline writes: “There is a documented shift in focus from retrieval/system-centered to human-centered research in information behavior,” highlighting the importance of the personal when discussing information overload. Tidline’s point is one I would like to focus on in my deliverable, making sure my work focuses on the user’s experiences.While I love language, I believe that there are some things that cannot be put into words. When this happens, other methods of communication are necessary. And since so many iSquares deal with the body and its role in information, a dance/movement piece seemed like the obvious choice to express information overload.